1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a toner for use in electrophotography, an electrostatic recording method, a magnetic recording method, and other methods.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, analog printers and copying machines have been replaced with digital printers and copying machines. Thus, there is a strong demand for high reproducibility of latent images and high resolution, as well as stability in long-term use and improved energy conservation. In order to improve energy conservation, it is important to reduce the power consumption of copying machines and printers in a fixing process. Power consumption can be effectively reduced by using film fixing and by lowering the fixing temperature. In the film fixing, use of a film improves thermal conductivity and thereby tends to lower power consumption.
A low fixing temperature in film fixing often causes a problem of “low-temperature offset”, in which because of insufficient releasability between toner and a film during fixing, the toner cannot be fixed to a medium, such as a paper sheet, and part of the toner remains on the film.
Another problem in jumping development, which is magnetic single component development, is low-temperature offset associated with “sweeping”. Sweeping is a phenomenon in which the amount of developed toner at an edge of an image area increases in a boundary region between the image area and a non-image area because electric lines of force extend toward the edge of the image area. Sweeping often occurs in jumping development.
For example, in an image that includes a line and a solid in combination, since the effect of edges is greater in the line area than in the solid area, the amount of developed toner tends to be increased by sweeping. Thus, low-temperature offset is more likely to occur in the line area than in the solid area.
Various attempts have been made to prevent low-temperature offset by using particular toners. Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 2012-47771, 2012-014167, and 10-239897 describe improvements in low-temperature offset from the perspective of the dispersibility of a magnetic material in a magnetic toner.
In any of these magnetic toners, although the thermal conductivity of the magnetic toner increases with the dispersibility of the magnetic material in the magnetic toner, the thermal conductivity is still insufficient. Furthermore, sweeping is not fully discussed in these patents. Thus, there is room for improvement in low-temperature offset.